RSK
05-05-2005, 07:46 PM
Bush to push democracy agenda in ex-Soviet Georgia
By Margarita Antidze
Thu May 5, 9:48 AM ET
TBILISI (*******) - George W. Bush's visit next week to Georgia is being hailed in the ex-Soviet state as a U.S. blessing for revolutionary change in Russia's backyard and encouragement for Tbilisi's feisty stand against the Kremlin.
http://us.news3.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/345,http%3A%2F%2Fus.news2.yimg.com%2Fus.yimg.com%2Fp%2Fnm%2F20050505%2Fmdf552221.jpg?v=
In this file photo Georgian servicemen stand at attention with Georgian national flags at the military base 5 km outside Tbilisi during the farewell ceremony, March 1, 2005. George W. Bush's visit next week to Georgia is being hailed in the ex-Soviet state as a U.S. blessing for revolutionary change in Russia's backyard and encouragement for Tbilisi's feisty stand against the Kremlin. (Stringer/*******)
The two-day visit will pay homage to Georgia's 2003 "Rose Revolution" that defied Moscow by installing a pro-Western leadership and created the template for two other ex-Soviet states, Ukraine and Moldova, to move out of Russia's orbit.
It will also underline Washington's desire to see democratic revolutions elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, analysts said, with authoritarian Russian ally Belarus -- described by Bush's top diplomat as a "dictatorship" -- heading the list.
"This visit is a very clear message ... for the Russians that the Cold War is over," said Gocha Tskitishvili, a Georgian political analyst. "There is a new world order."
Georgia is at the heart of the strategic but turbulent Caucasus mountains region where Moscow is fighting Chechen separatists while just south of the Russian frontier a handful of "frozen conflicts" could reignite at any moment.
The United States is widely seen in Georgia as a protector from its northern neighbor and tens of thousands are expected to come on Tuesday when Bush speaks in Tbilisi's Liberty Square.
It was from there 18 months ago that thousands of people angered by a rigged election and brandishing red roses marched on parliament. Armed riot police melted away and unpopular President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned a day later.
But since then it has been a bumpy ride for new president Mikhail Saakashvili, a 37-year-old graduate of New York's Columbia University who says he wants to take his country of 5 million into the U.S.-led NATO alliance and the European Union.
Economic reforms have been painful and though Georgia won independence from Moscow in 1991, the Kremlin has clung to its levers of influence.
Two Russian military bases remain on Georgian soil and Tbilisi says Moscow is backing the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Bush may announce an aid package worth up to $200 million -- about one tenth of Georgia's budget -- said Zeyno Baran, a Georgia expert with Washington's Nixon Center, a think tank.
SLAP IN THE FACE
Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley has said the president's trip is not meant to send any message to the Russians.
But others say the opposite. "It's a slap in their face," said a Western diplomat. "They will be irritated."
Georgia's foreign minister said on Thursday Saakashvili will boycott May 9 wartime victory celebrations in Moscow and a summit of ex-Soviet states unless the Kremlin agrees to complete the base withdrawal in 2008.
Salome Zurabishvili told Georgia's Rustavi-2 television station a deal had to be struck when she meets her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday.
After years of stalling, analysts say a deal is now a real possibility: in part due to U.S. pressure and partly because Moscow is pursuing a new, more pragmatic foreign policy.
Bush flies to Tbilisi on Monday from Moscow, where he heads a cast of more than 50 world leaders taking part in a parade in Red Square to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany 60 years ago.
Workmen have been toiling round the clock to spruce up buildings and fill in potholes in Georgia's elegant but decaying capital in time for the visit.
Since Georgia's revolt, Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" installed Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko, and Moldova voted to re-elect President Vladimir Voronin, who has fallen out with Moscow and now seeks integration with Europe.
On a trip to Moscow last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested she would be happy to see power change hands too in Belarus which, she said, is "the last true dictatorship in the center of Europe."
Georgia is a good venue to push that agenda not least because, analysts say, Saakashvili shares Bush's zeal for spreading democracy.
"Mr. Bush's visit represents support for Georgian democracy, and democracy throughout the (ex-Soviet) region," Saakashvili said this week.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050505/pl_nm/georgia_bush_dc_6
By Margarita Antidze
Thu May 5, 9:48 AM ET
TBILISI (*******) - George W. Bush's visit next week to Georgia is being hailed in the ex-Soviet state as a U.S. blessing for revolutionary change in Russia's backyard and encouragement for Tbilisi's feisty stand against the Kremlin.
http://us.news3.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/345,http%3A%2F%2Fus.news2.yimg.com%2Fus.yimg.com%2Fp%2Fnm%2F20050505%2Fmdf552221.jpg?v=
In this file photo Georgian servicemen stand at attention with Georgian national flags at the military base 5 km outside Tbilisi during the farewell ceremony, March 1, 2005. George W. Bush's visit next week to Georgia is being hailed in the ex-Soviet state as a U.S. blessing for revolutionary change in Russia's backyard and encouragement for Tbilisi's feisty stand against the Kremlin. (Stringer/*******)
The two-day visit will pay homage to Georgia's 2003 "Rose Revolution" that defied Moscow by installing a pro-Western leadership and created the template for two other ex-Soviet states, Ukraine and Moldova, to move out of Russia's orbit.
It will also underline Washington's desire to see democratic revolutions elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, analysts said, with authoritarian Russian ally Belarus -- described by Bush's top diplomat as a "dictatorship" -- heading the list.
"This visit is a very clear message ... for the Russians that the Cold War is over," said Gocha Tskitishvili, a Georgian political analyst. "There is a new world order."
Georgia is at the heart of the strategic but turbulent Caucasus mountains region where Moscow is fighting Chechen separatists while just south of the Russian frontier a handful of "frozen conflicts" could reignite at any moment.
The United States is widely seen in Georgia as a protector from its northern neighbor and tens of thousands are expected to come on Tuesday when Bush speaks in Tbilisi's Liberty Square.
It was from there 18 months ago that thousands of people angered by a rigged election and brandishing red roses marched on parliament. Armed riot police melted away and unpopular President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned a day later.
But since then it has been a bumpy ride for new president Mikhail Saakashvili, a 37-year-old graduate of New York's Columbia University who says he wants to take his country of 5 million into the U.S.-led NATO alliance and the European Union.
Economic reforms have been painful and though Georgia won independence from Moscow in 1991, the Kremlin has clung to its levers of influence.
Two Russian military bases remain on Georgian soil and Tbilisi says Moscow is backing the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Bush may announce an aid package worth up to $200 million -- about one tenth of Georgia's budget -- said Zeyno Baran, a Georgia expert with Washington's Nixon Center, a think tank.
SLAP IN THE FACE
Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley has said the president's trip is not meant to send any message to the Russians.
But others say the opposite. "It's a slap in their face," said a Western diplomat. "They will be irritated."
Georgia's foreign minister said on Thursday Saakashvili will boycott May 9 wartime victory celebrations in Moscow and a summit of ex-Soviet states unless the Kremlin agrees to complete the base withdrawal in 2008.
Salome Zurabishvili told Georgia's Rustavi-2 television station a deal had to be struck when she meets her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday.
After years of stalling, analysts say a deal is now a real possibility: in part due to U.S. pressure and partly because Moscow is pursuing a new, more pragmatic foreign policy.
Bush flies to Tbilisi on Monday from Moscow, where he heads a cast of more than 50 world leaders taking part in a parade in Red Square to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany 60 years ago.
Workmen have been toiling round the clock to spruce up buildings and fill in potholes in Georgia's elegant but decaying capital in time for the visit.
Since Georgia's revolt, Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" installed Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko, and Moldova voted to re-elect President Vladimir Voronin, who has fallen out with Moscow and now seeks integration with Europe.
On a trip to Moscow last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested she would be happy to see power change hands too in Belarus which, she said, is "the last true dictatorship in the center of Europe."
Georgia is a good venue to push that agenda not least because, analysts say, Saakashvili shares Bush's zeal for spreading democracy.
"Mr. Bush's visit represents support for Georgian democracy, and democracy throughout the (ex-Soviet) region," Saakashvili said this week.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050505/pl_nm/georgia_bush_dc_6